Riptide GP

Riptide GP would be particularly impressive if the Aqua Moto series didn’t already exist. Like those games, it features graphically rich water-based racing action. It both looks and controls great, but unlike its competition the sense of progression and options are much more limited in Riptide GP.

This lack of options extends to the way the game controls. Handling your jet ski is done entirely by tilt controls, with no option to use any sort of on-screen control stick. Accelerating is by default automatic, though you do have the option to do it manually as well. While the lack of choice is annoying, the tilt-based controls do work quite well, and with auto-acceleration on it helps to free up your thumbs for pulling off tricks– which can be done via different combinations of swipes– to refill your boost meter.

Water has such bad traction!

The racing feels solid, and pulling off tricks is simple and satisfying (though there doesn’t appear to be any real benefit to performing a variety of different tricks). Riptide GP is an arcade-style experience, and as such the racing feels both fast and at times out of control. When you hit a particularly bumpy stretch of waves, for example, it’s all you can do to keep a handle on things.

And even on an older device the game looks amazing. Aside from a few jagged edges here and there, the futuristic environments you’ll be racing through are all distinct and full of interesting set-pieces to distract you from the race. They even change throughout the race, with new routes and ramps opening up at different times. It has a sort of WipEout-on-water vibe, though with much more annoying electronic music in the background.

Last one there’s a rotten egg.

We just wish there were more of these courses. Riptide GP only has six tracks, which you can play through both in standard mode and in reverse. So if you’re being generous, you could say there are a dozen. There are also only six vehicles to take for a spin and the difference in how they feel is minimal. There are a few different options to play through– including straight racing, a grand prix mode, and hot lap mode– and three different difficulty levels to play them on, but the lack of course and vehicle variety makes it feel as though you’re doing the same race over and over again.

There’s also very little sense of progression. Yes, you’ll unlock new, somewhat better vehicles as you play, but they don’t feel all that superior and there’s no upgrade system like in Aqua Moto 2. It won’t be long before you see most of what the game has to offer. And after that all you can do is replay it at a harder difficulty.

Riptide GP is certainly a competent and enjoyable racer, and it’s a great graphical showcase for your mobile device. But it doesn’t have much in the way of staying power. The small number of tracks and vehicles combined with the lack of any true sense of progression means that there’s little reason to keep playing aside from topping your high score.

More stories on Riptide GP

Advertisement

Advertisement

Our Awesome Email Newsletter

Enter your email to subscribe to our daily email on what's hot in mobile games. Or, take a look at the archive.

Email Address *

And it of course should go without saying, but we'll say it just to make it 100% clear -- we will never share your email address with anyone.

Connect with us

Latest Recommended Games

The fine folks at Milkbag games have released Sidewords. A fun little diversion of a word game that is the devil child of crosswords and scrabble. For each level in the game the grid must be completed to win the level — this means that each letter at the top and side must be used. And not just the top or side, but each word must be made up of letters from the top and side to create a grid. It’s a pain, but in the right kind of way. Even the simplest of the levels can be a head scratcher until you get used to the game. Well worth the $3 as a diversion while we wait for Milkbag to finally release Snow Siege.

We’d like to thank our sponsor for this week, Zap Zap Kindergarten Math.

It’s not always easy to tear your kids away from their tablets and make them do something edifying. Thankfully, Zap Zap Kindergarten Math relieves you of this task by turning mathematics into a fun touchscreen video game. Win win!

Aimed at children 3-6 years old, the app makes math fun by ‘gamifying’ it, turning simple mathematics problems into little challenges so that your pre-schooler can learn and play at the same time.

There are more than two dozen mini-games, split across three categories: Numbers, Shapes and Measurements, and Add and Subtract. According to the developer the difficulty of these puzzles is adaptive too, so kids of any ability can be both encouraged and challenged.

Mini Dayz has launched and it’s a pixelated 2.5D open world that’s as brutal as the desktop version. In this game, the player is dumped on shore with nothing. They must scavenge around for food, water, and weapons while avoiding attack. It’s the kind of game where the goal is to stay alive as long as possible. But that will never be very long. It’s oddly free and seems to only have an ad on the main screen — for now.

Pewter Games has brought their charming point and click adventure The Little Acre to iOS. It’s an amazingly beautiful animated adventure set in a sort of hybrid magical / alien world. A great all ages adventure and very fun.

We’d like to thank our sponsor for this week, The House of Da Vinci by Blue Brain Games. There’s a reason Leonardo Da Vinci is the only renaissance figure who routinely shows up in video games you know. With his remarkable inventiveness and genius for creative problem-solving, Da Vinci was a gamer through and through. He was just born 500 hundred years too soon. Thankfully, there are studios like Blue Brain Games to bring him to life in videogame form. The House of Da Vinci, which comes to us courtesy of a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, is a puzzler that seeks to channel the artistry and innovation of its title character.

You play as one of Da Vinci’s more promising apprentices, and you have the challenging task of trying to work out where the hell he’s gone. Was he assassinated by the church? Who knows. Has he quietly gone into a retirement? Perhaps. Did he accidentally invent a shrink ray and shrink himself down to the size of an dustmite? Probably not. Da Vinci’s workshop looks beautiful, thanks to some impressive 3D graphics, and the in-game environment is crammed with all the elaborate machines and crazy inventions you’d expect to find in the workplace of a renaissance genius.(more…)

Poly Bridge is out now on iOS, and it’s good to have it! It’s a great game and many seem to agree that it’s the best bridge builder game available. But the iOS versions, so far, is missing the sandbox mode. I would hope that it’s coming soon in an update. If you are all interested in physics puzzlers, grab this one. (Note: the video is for the PC version, I have yet to see a trailer for the mobile version, the developer Dry Cactus isn’t that great at marketing…)

Advertisement

Apple, the Apple logo, Apple Watch, iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. Other terms may be trademarks of their respective companies.